T. TEX EDWARDS ON BLOGSPOT
Consisting primarily of re-blogs of interesting stuff with a few original blogpostings here and there...

Thursday, August 9, 2012

Phil York (1942-2012), Texas Music Legend

Phil York has passed away. He was the engineer who recorded, amongst many others, the Nervebreakers' We Want Everything album in 1980. Back when the Nervebreakers were first looking into recording an album, I quizzed my older brother Dan for recommendations. Dan had previously recorded with Gene Summers at Phil's studio, Autumn Sound in Garland, Texas and immediately brought York's name up. Phil was a really good guy, and had seen and recorded many artists over the years, but I think we were his first exposure to punk rock. He was the ultimate professional. After we called him to inquire about recording at his place, Phil came out to one of the Nervebreakers live gigs to check out what we sounded like in person at a nightclub. Once in his studio and recording, he was very patient and steady in his dealings with the rowdy novices we were at the time. Years later, he also helped out on some remastering projects. Phil was very good at what he did, as the quotes below demonstrate. He's a big part of Texas music history and will be missed. I just hope Phil had the time and inclination to complete the memoir Robert Wilonsky mentions in his remembrance from the Dallas Morning News website.

From Mike Haskins: “Phil York recorded the Nervebreakers’ “We Want Everything” LP in 1980 and The Big Gundown EP in 1994. A great guy, excellent engineer.”

OBIT:

Philip Wylie York, of Irving, passed away Saturday, August 4, 2012. He was born January 2, 1942 in Dallas. He was a graduate of South Oak Cliff High School and was a Scientologist for 50 years. Philip was a recording engineer/producer and owner of Yorktown Digital Works, Inc., in Irving and Big Y Productions for 53 years.

Philip was a three time Grammy winner and a voting member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. He had recorded tens of thousands of hours in Texas recording studios, including his own. He recorded the musical numbers to Universal Pictures’ feature film Tender Mercies, which was nominated for four Academy Award Oscars and won two of them. He has recorded a No. 1 national chart hit single in five major music styles: Pop, Country, Rhythm & Blues, Hispanic, and Contemporary Christian. He recorded the No. 17 Billboard disco hit single, Coming out of Hiding, sung by Pamela Stanley. He has recorded three Grammy Winners and about 40 Grammy contenders that didn’t win. The most recent Grammy received was in 2003.

He knew how to fix gooey tapes, and regularly performed those services for individuals, too. Bing Crosby, one of the most loved and respected entertainers who ever lived, recording more recordings than anyone else, said this about Phil York’s work restoring some early recordings to higher quality: “The tapes are truly remarkable. The quality is unbelievable. Thank You.”

He is survived by his son Jason, sister Sharon; grandson Michael; granddaughter Chauni; nephew Steve; niece Stacey; great nieces April, Autumn, and Alex; great nephews Morgan and Conner; numerous other family members; and many members of the music industry whom Phil considered his family, including several best friends that he loved dearly.

Funeral services will be held at 10 AM Friday, August 10, 2012 at Brown’s Memorial Chapel. Burial will follow at Laurel Land Memorial Park in Dallas. The family will receive friends 6-8 PM Thursday at the funeral home.

‘Unsung’ local hero Phil York, the man who helped Willie Nelson record ‘Red Headed Stranger,’ has died at 70

Phil York and Willie Nelson in Garland, recordingRed Headed Stranger in 1975(Via.)

Buried inside today’s Metro section is this small obituary for a Dallas-music giant: Philip Wylie York, otherwise known as The Man Who Engineered Red Headed Stranger, among countless other recordings with which you’re no doubt familiar. His death on August 4 didn’t take friends by surprise; the 70-year-old had been in failing health for a long while. I didn’t even see the obit, but was instead tipped off by a note from Mike Haskins of the Nervebreakers, the Dallas punk pioneers with whom York made two records, including the essential We Want Everything!

Last time York and I spoke was in November of last year, when he said he was working on his memoirs; I was eagerly anticipating the section concerning that legendary wee-small-hours Rolling Stones jam session at the late, great landmark Sumet-Bernet Sound Studios, all of which he caught on tape. But that was one story among many: The three-time Grammy-winner worked with local garage-rockers in the ’60s, punk and country outlaws in the ’70s, polka revivalists in the ’80s (he was behind the board on three Brave Combo records) and everyone from Charley Pride to Rocky Hill to Ann-Margret to Robert Duvall for theTender Mercies sound track. And he engineered The Relatives’ sessions in the early 1970s — recordings that still sound like they were made the day after tomorrow.

For his work as engineer, and as someone who restored historic recordings of legendary artists, York was rewarded with three Grammys.

“He’s the unsung hero of the audio recording arts in Dallas — and arguable the most important audio engineer this side of Jim Beck, which is saying a lot,” says Willie Nelson biographer Joe Nick Patoski, referring to the man who first recorded Lefty Frizzell. “He was a cool guy who did great work. It was right place, right time and, more importantly, the right attitude. He took on all kinds of different projects. His [stuff] was all over the map. [Red Headed Stranger] is the album that pushed Willie across when nothing else had to that point. That album made all the difference in the world, and he let Willie do it his way, which was against every rule in the studio recording business: He stripped it all down, and Phil was with him all the way.”